Indoor Air Quality Testing near you

A measurement is only as good as the method behind it and the laboratory or technician applying that method. For analytical work such as identifying asbestos in a sample, the relevant question is whether the laboratory is accredited for that specific test, and accreditation is something you can ask to see rather than take on trust. A result from an accredited laboratory against a documented method is a result another professional will accept; a reading from an unaccredited hand-held device is a reading.

For the gas side the equivalent credential is a licence. Gasfitting is a separately licensed class in every Australian state and territory, and Energy Safe Victoria states that servicing and repair work should be done by a licensed Type A gasfitter, that licensed gasfitters carry a photo identification card listing the work they may do, and that the gasfitter should be endorsed to service Type A gas appliances and have the training to detect carbon monoxide spillage. Carbon monoxide testing in a house is therefore not a separate profession; it belongs with the appliance service.

For anything found in a roof space, competence has a legal edge in older Australian housing. The NSW Government's guidance for working in pre-1980 built homes tells workers to ask the home owner or occupier whether the property contains loose-fill asbestos insulation, to request the owner have it tested before proceeding if they suspect it may be present, and not to enter roof spaces until tested by a competent person. A tester who climbs into an older roof space without asking that question first is telling you something about their practice.

A good investigation starts with the building and the history and uses measurement to test a hypothesis. A poor one starts with the instrument. The order below is what separates the two.

Carbon monoxide is the first. Energy Safe Victoria describes it as a gas you cannot see or smell, warns that when it spills from a gas heater it can make you very sick or kill you, and notes that any gas heater can spill it, including old and new heaters, central heating units, space heaters, wall furnaces and decorative log fires. If testing finds spillage, the appliance comes out of service immediately and stays out until a licensed gasfitter has corrected the cause, and the household ventilates the space and leaves if anyone is unwell.

Loose-fill asbestos insulation is the second. The NSW Government explains that during the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies loose-fill asbestos insulation was installed in some residential and commercial premises in Australia, that its register enables a search for each property by street address, and, critically, that the register only identifies properties that have tested positive. Its instruction to anyone who finds suspicious material is to immediately withdraw from the area and arrange professional testing. If that is the result, nobody enters the roof space, the ceiling is not disturbed, and the next call is to a licensed asbestos professional rather than to a general builder.

Testing is worth the money when the result will change a decision, when it is required before work can lawfully proceed, or when you need evidence another party will accept, such as an insurer, a landlord, a strata committee or a court. Asbestos identification before renovation work is the clearest example: it is cheap relative to the work, it has a definitive answer, and the answer determines who may lawfully do the job.

Testing is a poor use of money when the cause is already visible. If there is mould in the corner of a bedroom, water staining below a window and an exhaust fan discharging into the roof space, no laboratory result will improve on that diagnosis, and the same money spent on fixing the ventilation and the leak will do more. The same applies to a musty subfloor with blocked vents and to a house that smells of smoke after a bushfire.

The reasonable middle ground is cheap, repeatable measurement done by the household. A hygrometer in two or three rooms over a few weeks, and a record of when problems occur, gives an investigator far more to work with than a single expensive sample, and it costs almost nothing.

The drivers are how many samples are taken and of what, whether laboratory analysis is included or quoted separately, whether an inspection of the building is part of the engagement or only the sampling, the access required including roof and subfloor spaces, and whether a written report with an interpretation is provided. An engagement that includes a proper inspection costs more and is usually worth more than the same money spent on extra samples.

LokalMatch is where the job starts, not where it ends. Describe the symptoms, the rooms, the age and construction of the house, what fuel is burnt indoors and your postcode, and gasfitting, building inspection, asbestos and hygiene businesses covering your area contact you directly; those businesses pay LokalMatch for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not do the work, does not set or quote prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone, so ask what method will be used and which laboratory is accredited for it before you agree to a test.